Category: Gamespot

A new month means a slew of new programming to watch on Amazon Prime. The streaming video component of the service is ending the year on a high note by adding some notable franchises, the new Doctor Who Christmas special, and classic movies like Point Break to its offerings in December.

Most notable, the Rocky movies are coming to Prime. Rocky through Rocky V will all help Amazon kick off the month. They join Creed, which is already available to subscribers. Now Amazon just needs to snag the rights to Rocky Balboa and the collection will be complete.

The streamer is also adding the eight-film Marvel Animated Features collection. The cartoon movies, originally released direct-to-DVD, include Ultimate Avengers, Planet Hulk, Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme, and Thor: Tales of Asgard, among others. Originally released between 2006 and 2011, the films exist in their own universe apart from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

December also brings several more Thursday Night Football games, as the NFL presents the Saints vs. the Falcons, the Broncos vs. the Colts, and the Steelers vs. the Texans. Those games will air live through Amazon Prime.

You can take a look at the full list of Amazon’s December additions below. You can also see what Netflix has in store for the final month of 2017.

December 1:

• Apocalypse Now
• At Close Range
• Basic Instinct 2
• Bloodsport
• Brothers Grimm
• Buffalo 66
• Child’s Play
• Doctor Strange: The Sorcerer Supreme
• Gremlins 2: The New Batch
• Hammett
• Hannibal
• Hitch
• Hulk Vs.
• In & Out
• In Enemy Hands
• Light Sleeper
• Meet Wally Sparks
• Moonstruck
• Next Avengers: Heroes Of Tomorrow
• Planet Hulk
• Point Break
• Rocky
• Rocky II
• Rocky III
• Rocky IV
• Rocky V
• Searching For Bobby Fischer
• Silence
• Stigmata
• The Final Cut
• The Heartbreak Kid
• The Invincible Iron Man
• The Silence Of The Lambs
• The Weight Of Water
• Thor Animated Movie: Tales Of Asgard
• Titanic
• Ultimate Avengers
• Ultimate Avengers II
• Wristcutters: A Love Story

December 3

• Class Season 1

December 4

• The Royals Season 3

December 7

• Thursday Night Football: Saints vs. Falcons
• Aftershock
• Gun Shy

December 8

• The Grand Tour Season 2
• Crank: High Voltage
• Triple 9

December 9

• It Comes At Night

December 10

• Nightcrawler
• Rosewater

December 12

• Foreman

December 14

• Thursday Night Football: Broncos Vs. Colts

December 15

• Jean-Claude Van Johnson Season 1

December 18

• Doctor Who Christmas special

December 21

• Humans Season 2
• Woodshock

December 23

• Teen Wolf Season 6
• Anne Of Green Gables Season 2
• Banksy Does New York
• Someone Marry Barry

December 25

• Thursday Night Football: Steelers Vs. Texans

December 28

• Anjelah Johnson: Mahalo & Goodnight

December 29

• Rings

December 31

• Brawl In Cellblock 99
• Solace

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With the arrival of the holidays comes a slew of new shows and movies on Netflix. It’s a particularly busy month for the streamer, with many holiday specials joining the service, alongside several Netflix originals and a number of new library titles. With popular titles like V for Vendetta, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Disney’s The Santa Clause trilogy arriving, December is going to be a busy month for streaming.

However, it’s a Netflix original movie that you should be paying closest attention to. December 22 will see the premiere of Bright, starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. The fantasy crime movie is directed by David Ayer (Suicide Squad) with a script by Max Landis (American Ultra). The film marks Smith’s first time starring in a Netflix project and he’s certainly picked an interesting one.

Bright is set in a world where humans and fantasy creatures coexist. Smith plays an LAPD officer who is partnered with an Orc (Edgerton) when they find a very powerful magic wand that has the potential to change the world. Other new entries include Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, a new season of The Ranch, and Dave Chappelle’s latest stand-up comedy special. It’s not all good news, though.

There are also many titles departing the service in December. Black Snake Moan, Practical Magic, and 11 seasons of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia are just a few of the movies and shows that will no longer be available after the end of 2017. So make sure you watch them while you still can.

You can take a look at the full list of what’s coming and going on Netflix throughout December below. You can also see everything that’s arrived in November.

Arriving on Netflix, December 2017

December 1

• 8 Mile
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
• Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls
• All Hail King Julien: Season 5 (Netflix Original)
• A StoryBots Christmas (Netflix Original)
• August Rush
• Chef & My Fridge: 2017
• Dark: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
• Diana: In Her Own Words
• Dreamcatcher
• DreamWorks Home: For the Holidays (Netflix Original)
• Easy: Season 2 (Netflix Original)
• Exporting Raymond
• Forbidden Games: The Justin Fashanu Story
• Full Metal Jacket
• Hitch
• My Happy Family (Netflix Original)
• Nacho Libre
• Sahara
• The Farthest – Voyager in Space
• The Little Rascals
• The Wackness
• The Young Victoria
• Tyson
• V for Vendetta
• TURN: Washington’s Spies: Season 4
• Voyeur (Netflix Original)
• While You Were Sleeping

December 4

• When Calls the Heart: Season 4

December 5

• Craig Ferguson: Tickle Fight (Netflix Original)
• Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

December 6

• Trolls Holiday Special

December 8

• El Camino Christmas (Netflix Original)
• The Crown: Season 2 (Netflix Original)

December 11

• Catwoman
• The Magicians: Season 2

December 12

• Disney’s The Santa Clause
• Disney’s The Santa Clause 2
• Disney’s The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause
• Judd Apatow: The Return (Netflix Original)

December 14

• 41 Dogs in My Home
• A&E: When Patients Attack
• Ainsley Eats the Streets: Season 1
• Halt and Catch Fire: Season 4

December 15

• A Five Star Life
• Christmas Inheritance (Netflix Original)
• Discovering Bigfoot
• El Señor de los Cielos: Season 5
• Erased: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
• Freeway: Crack In The System
• Neverlake
• Pottersville
• Reggie Yates Outside Man: Volume 2
• The Haunting of Helena
• The Mafia Kills Only in Summer
• The Ranch: Part 4 (Netflix Original)
• Trollhunters: Part 2 (Netflix Original)
• Ultimate Beastmaster (Netflix Original)
• Wormwood (Netflix Original)

December 18

• Hello, My Twenties!: Season 2 (Netflix Original)

December 19

• Miss Me This Christmas
• Russell Howard: Recalibrate (Netflix Original)
• The Indian Detective: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
• You Can’t Fight Christmas

December 20

• La Casa de Papel: Season 1 (Netflix Original)

December 21

• Peaky Blinders: Season 4 (Netflix Original)

December 22

• 72 Dangerous Animals: Latin America: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
• Bright (Netflix Original)
• Dope: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
• Fuller House: Season 3, New Episodes (Netflix Original)
• Rosario Tijeras: Season 1
• The Toys That Made Us: Season 1 (Netflix Original)

December 23

• Creep 2
• Myths & Monsters: Season 1

December 25

• Cable Girls: Season 2 (Netflix Original)
• Planet Earth II

December 26

• Todd Barry: Spicy Honey (Netflix Original)
• Travelers: Season 2 (Netflix Original)
• All Hail King Julien: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Beat Bugs: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Larva: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Pororo: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Puffin Rock: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Skylanders Academy: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Trollhunters: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• True and The Rainbow Kingdom: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018
• Word Party: New Year’s Eve Countdown 2018

December 27

• Pusher

December 29

• Bill Nye Saves the World: Season 2: Part 1 (Netflix Original)
• Killer Legends
• La Mante: Season 1 (Netflix Original)
• Shelter
• The Climb (Netflix Original)

December 31

• Dave Chappelle: Equanimity (Netflix Original)
• Fun Mom Dinner

Leaving Netflix, December 2017

December 1

• All I Want for Christmas
• Bedazzled
• Black Snake Moan
• Compulsion
• Cousin Bette
• Hoffa
• La Viuda Negra: Season 1
• Picture Perfect
• Practical Magic
• Rebelde
• Scary Movie 2
• Scary Movie 3
• Super Size Me
• Terriers: Season 1
• The Crucible
• The Gospel Road: A Story of Jesus
• The Man from Snowy River
• Touch: Season 2
• Toys
• Two Girls and a Guy
• Waking Life
• Young Frankenstein
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal: Seasons 1-2

December 5

• Holes

December 9

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Seasons 1-11

December 10

• Lucky Number Slevin
• Nightcrawler
• The Rite

December 11

• Dollhouse: Season 2

December 13

• The Queen of Versailles

December 15

• America’s Funniest Home Video Kids: Holidazed
• America’s Funniest Home Videos Kids: Animals with Attitude: Season 1
• America’s Funniest Home Videos Kids: It’s Tough Being a Kid: Season 1
• America’s Funniest Home Videos Kids: Playtime Ain’t for Wimps: Season 1
• America’s Funniest Home Videos: New Collection D: Nincompoop Nation
• Jeff Dunham: Arguing with Myself

December 19

• Dance Academy: Series 1-3

December 20

• Che: Parts 1 & 2

December 24

• Amores Perros

December 25

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

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Pokemon Go‘s latest event, the Global Catch Challenge, has ended, and because the game’s community managed to catch the top target of 3 billion Pokemon during the period, both Farfetch’d and Kangaskhan are now available in new regions.

Farfetch’d was previously exclusive to Japan, but will now be catchable worldwide. Kangaskhan, meanwhile, could only be found in Australia but can now be caught in east Asia. You’ll have to hurry though: the pair are only available in their new areas for a limited time–you’ll have until around 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET on Monday, November 27 to catch them (that’s 12 AM GMT / 10 AM AEST on November 28 in the UK and Australia). Other active rewards for that time period include 6-hour lures and double XP.

Developer Niantic continues to support Pokemon Go, though it does have at least one more project in the pipeline. The company confirmed last week that it’s making a new title called Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. The developer did say, however, that making that game would not mean it would stop supporting Pokemon Go.

In addition to the new event, Pokemon Go also has new Pokemon Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon cosmetic items available now. Those 3DS games launched just recently, and we awarded them an 8/10 in our Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon review. For lots more on the new games, check out this breakdown of the key differences between Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon.

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Black Friday had a huge effect on the UK physical game charts this week, with retailer- and publisher-led promotions dramatically changing the makeup of the top 10 for the week ending November 25. Sales monitor Chart-Track says more PlayStation 4 consoles were sold than any Black Friday week since 2013 (which was also the platform’s launch week in the UK). Chart-Track also reports that PSVR unit sales were “on par with launch week,” and the equivalent of the previous 18 weeks’ sales put together.

Call of Duty: WWII maintains its position at the top of the chart for a fourth week in a row, while FIFA 18 climbs one place to No.2. Both games sold significantly better on PS4 than Xbox One thanks to a number of promotional PS4 bundles. Gran Turismo Sport was also featured in multiple bundles, and it grabs the last podium spot at No.3.

Two other Sony titles launched this week: Knowledge is Power debuts at No.14, with Hidden Agenda right behind it in No.15. Xbox One bundles, meanwhile, contributed to Assassin’s Creed Origins climbing one place to No.5, while Forza Motorsport 7 rises nine places this week to No.6.

You can read the full top 10 sales chart below, courtesy of UKIE and Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.

1. Call of Duty: WWII
2. FIFA 18
3. Gran Turismo Sport
4. Star Wars Battlefront II
5. Assassin’s Creed Origins
6. Forza Motorsport 7
7. Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
8. Super Mario Odyssey
9. Fallout 4
10. Need for Speed Payback

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As part of the continuing saga of Resident Kinevil 7, Mary Kish makes her way down to the basement, solves a puzzle, confronts a few moldeds, and takes a bunch of drugs.

In the video above, you can join Mary and Mike Mahardy in their quest to complete every numbered Resident Evil game. The show airs every Saturday at 3 p.m. PT, here on GameSpot, and on YouTube.

You can catch up on the series here on the show’s homepage, or over on this YouTube playlist. The duo has been through their ups and downs throughout the Resident Evil franchise, and they want you to join in on the fun…and misery.

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Despite the influx of great games hitting recently, most of the conversation has been dominated by Star Wars Battlefront II’s microtransactions and the debate on whether Loot Boxes should fall into the same category as gambling. And it’s reached further than just internet chatter: the Belgium Gaming Commission is currently in the middle of an investigation into the systems used by games like Battlefront II and Overwatch, and Hawaii state representative Chris Lee has announced that he’s working towards the prohibition of manipulative mechanisms in games.

In the latest episode of The Dive, we talked to psychology professor Ronald Riggio and psychologist Jamie Madigan about the affects gambling has on our minds and the concepts that make us feel better about spending money. We also talked about how these might apply to loot boxes and ask them both whether they feel Battlefront 2 and Overwatch’s systems could constitute gambling. You can watch it for yourself in the video above.

Much has happened during the recent and somewhat ongoing Battlefront 2 fiasco, including the slashing of Hero costs, the temporary removal of microtransactions, and the dropping of EA’s stock. We cover the whole situation extensively in our video titled, “Star Wars Battlefront 2’s Loot Box Controversy Explained.”

Despite the accusations, Battlefront 2 publisher EA has said that its game does not contain gambling, while Overwatch developer Blizzard believes there’s “absolutely nothing wrong” with its loot boxes and doesn’t think its game should be a part of the controversy.

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Four years after its current-gen console first launched, Microsoft has released the upgraded Xbox One X. The software giant heralds its latest device in the Xbox One family as “the most powerful console ever”–and its 4K capabilities make Xbox games look better than before. But, with the new console’s release, I’m left wondering which of its games are compelling enough to make me rush out and buy one.

There’s third-party stuff, sure: Assassin’s Creed’s year off has helped remove some of the fatigue surrounding that franchise, and Origins has been well-received. And Middle-earth: Shadow of War, which has been heavily marketed on Xbox, is, mostly, a worthy successor to Shadow of Mordor. But in terms of exclusives, Xbox fans have been left wanting this year.

The delay of Crackdown 3, the only major Xbox One exclusive scheduled to launch around the Xbox One X, has left a gaping hole in the console’s lineup. Combined with an already sparse exclusive release schedule for Xbox One’s holiday season, this offers little incentive to buy an Xbox One X outside of possessing power for power’s sake.

Sea of Thieves was scheduled for launch this year, but now it’s not coming until early 2018. And Scalebound–a relatively niche but much-anticipated game–isn’t happening at all. That leaves Cuphead, Forza Motorsport 7, Super Lucky’s Tale, and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (sort of) as Microsoft’s console exclusives for the end of the year. A somewhat uninspiring lineup in itself, it’s also not exactly a serving that makes me want to invest US $499 / £449 / AU $649 on an upgraded console. Of those four games, only Forza feels like one that could meaningfully benefit from the Xbox One X’s greater horsepower: Cuphead is more about style than performance, PUBG looks a little rough on any hardware (as you would expect from an early access game), and as a 3D platformer, Super Lucky’s Tale is not something I feel I desperately need in 60 FPS.

The platform’s growing list of backwards compatibility games—now including original Xbox titles–bolsters its library, too, and that’s a big advantage Microsoft has in the battle against Sony. But it strikes me as a little pointless to buy a brand-new Ferrari only to stick to 30mph roads.

There was a time towards the start of this generation where I believed the Xbox One–despite its problems–had a better exclusive lineup than the PS4. Sunset Overdrive felt fresh, Halo 5 was superb, Titanfall reinvented the FPS formula, and the Forza Horizon series is a joy compared to the more stilted Gran Turismo. The selection easily outshined a Last of Us remaster, the uninventive Infamous: Second Son, and a dull Killzone: Shadow Fall, and it was what convinced me to buy an Xbox One.

2017, however, has been a different story. Horizon Zero Dawn was an unexpected hit, Yakuza 0 and Persona 5 brought some much-needed variety, and Crash Bandicoot’s N. Sane Trilogy made me nostalgic like only an orange marsupial (or purple dragon) can. Compare that to Xbox’s past year and there’s a clear divide.

For what it’s worth, I haven’t rushed out to buy a PS4 Pro either, so maybe I’m just not the type to want to shell out wads of cash for smallish gains in performance, and perhaps there’s nothing Microsoft could ever do about that. But Sony’s exclusive lineup over the past couple of years–with The Last of Us: Part II on the horizon–made me at least stop and consider it. We don’t know what the next couple of years may hold for Xbox, but we do know at the very least that Naughty Dog’s apocalyptic adventure game is on its way, and that’s likely to be a bigger selling point for PS4 Pro than anything currently announced will be for Xbox One X.

So is there any hope for the Xbox One X?

Possibly. Right now, even if you look into next year, Microsoft’s exclusive roster looks slim. However, the company no doubt has unannounced projects in the pipeline. Halo 6 will come sooner or later, and even if Gears 4 wasn’t as groundbreaking as the games that came before it, the next in the series will surely be a worthy exclusive.

However, it wasn’t just exclusives that helped Sony to dominate this generation: the fact that third-party games often look and run better on PS4 than Xbox One helped, too. With Microsoft’s new console, that will no longer be the case–but with a first-party library looking so thin for now and the majority of gamers without a desperate need for updated hardware, who will buy an Xbox One X?

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